National Poetry Festival 2017

By National Poetry Festival Singapore

The National Poetry Festival is an annual showcase of poetry in multi-disciplinary presentations – from poetry performances to visual interpretations of poetry in all four languages. It’s Its theme for 2017 – “Regardless of Race”, focuses on navigating race relations in Singapore and how living in a melting pot moulds our identity.

The festival consists of seven fringe events through the year, including poetry workshops, a poetry and photography contest targeted at upper-primary students, a national poetry competition, poetry-music-dance performances involving Filipina migrant workers and Singaporean poets, poetry readings, a seminar, and book launches, leading to an apex three-day festival event in July.

The main three-day festival event will include an official opening with a Guest-of-Honour, poetry reading, performances featuring well-known poets, a prize-giving ceremony for the national poetry competition on Day 1. This will be followed by 10 events on Day 2 and 5 events on Day 3. These events include workshops, symposiums, keynotes, and art exhibitions at various venues.

The event targets to reach 1,400 participants through its activities/events. Identified collaborators include venue partners such as National Library Board, educational partners such as LASALLE College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, National Junior College and Republic Polytechnic, which involves students and teachers in the planning and execution, as well as programming partners such as Civic District, Migrant Workers’ Centre, SingPowRiMo, and Singapore Writer’s Festival for platforms and programmes.